Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate and Director, International Institute of Modern Letters, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Terence Hawkes, English, Cardiff University, Wales

Diane Wolfthal, Art History, Arizona State University

You are cordially invited to submit abstracts for session and 20-minute paper proposals either on the conference theme or on any topic in medieval, Renaissance, or early modern studies. "The Presence of the Past" concerns such questions as these: in what ways are images, artifacts, texts, and institutions of the medieval and early modern periods part of the contemporary world? What valid parallels or narratives connect these periods to the world today? How can we address our own historical and cultural situatedness? How did medieval and early modern cultures themselves apprehend and address the presence of the past?

Deadline: March 1, 2002
Submit by January 15 for early response